Here is my opinion for Larry Holmes's Best I Faced. Best Jab : Norton/Spinks Probably Norton, considering larry knows he faced him on his prime. Best Puncher : Shavers Best Defense : Witherspoon/Norton Probably Witherspoon, It seems that Holmes had more difficulty hitting him clean compared to Norton. Fastest Hands : Tyson Fastest Feet : Spinks Best Chin : Tex Cobb Strongest : Norton Best Boxing Skills : Spinks Smartest : Undecided Overall : Ken Norton Your thoughts ?
I think when it comes to best jab, Carl Williams may be the best he faced. Weather or not he thinks that I don’t know
Larry would give all his money to Don King and declare himself bankrupt before he would say Spinks is the best at anything. He is still convinced that he won both fights especially the second one and remains bitter that they stole the chance of matching Marciano's historic unbeaten record from him. Spinks is the last man on earth that he will give any credit to.
Not really. How Tyson ranks among Holmes' opponents: Best Jab : Nope. Nowhere near. Norton had a better jab, have to give it to him. Williams was better, too. Best Puncher : Nope. Tyson was never an Earnie Shavers. His hook wasn't even as heavy as Cooney's. Best Defense : Mike might make that, though Norton was really great in their fight. Fastest Hands : Tyson. I have to give Mike that, he surprised Larry. Fastest Feet : Ha ha. Not Mike. Best Chin : Definitely not Mike. Neither Douglas nor Holyfield were known as heavy punchers...we'll forget the later knockouts due to his age. Strongest : Mike. He was young, in his prime, kicking bootay all the time. Best Boxing Skills : Not Mike. Mike couldn't move or continually keep changing his game plan like Spinks Smartest : Not Mike, see above. Spinks kept changing his look so Larry never got a grip on his style. Holyfield was certainly more intelligent. Overall : I have to give Mike this one. Mike at the time was sensational. Holyfield wasn't far off. I'm actually surprised you made such a sweeping statement, @NoNeck. You're smarter than that.
My apologies. Let’s put Williams, who Tyson knocked out in one, as the best jab, and Bonecrusher, who hugged Tyson for 46 minutes, as the strongest.
Knowing Larry as we do, I strongly suspect he'd follow that pattern that a lot of guys do on the 'Best I've Faced' articles: nominate all the guys they beat, but never the guys they lost to.
Bonecrusher? ok, now I KNOW you're being silly. I put Norton ahead of Williams on the jab, but Williams had an excellent jab in general, and poked Larry silly with it. Larry barely took the win on that, and only because Williams faded. I get the feeling I'm feeding into your silly. I think you know most of this already, and are poking fun lol.
